"Flight to Egypt" by Balinese Christian Artist
Ketut Lasia
C is for
Compost
Thank you for your challenging responses to Dr. Bertram's challenge. Last
issue, recall, he invited readers to submit a sentence describing a
Crossings theme, which sentence would consist of nine words beginning
successively with the letters C-R-O-S-S-I-N-G-S.
R is for
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The following is my abridgment of a longer piece Dr. Bertram prepared for
another occasion. Every word is his, but there are fewer of them than
originally. This Christian reflection on the turn of the millennium shows
how Christ composts even our relationship to time into something genuinely
new.
O is for
Old
Next time students will be graduating it will be in the Year 2000. Some of
you will be serving as their commencement speakers or baccalaureate
preachers. I can see it now. You will begin your address by greeting
them: "So you are the Class of 2000."
S is for
Square one
Jesus Christ does have a beginning, a rather recent one at that. As Jesus
Christ he does. There was a time when Jesus Christ was not -- a time B.C.,
"Before Christ." But then that means he had to start at some Year One,
like us -- square one. That is definitely ungodlike and, when you think of
it, humiliating.
I is for
IOU
This is the way the Law works, chronologically speaking. In any given day
most of us have more to do than we have time to do it in. We may wish, as
we say, "there were more hours in the day." But there aren't. So instead
we borrow additional time from the future.
N is for
New Time
I'm betting that the little girl did not give up on the second Wow
altogether. Remember, the child had asked why Jesus Christ, being just as
old as God, being God, would still have a birthday like one of us. I'm not
sure her mother answered the Why head-on. But I do have it on good
authority that what the mother does reply, simply, is this: "Aren't you
glad he did?"
G is for
Glad
Aha, notice the switch. Suddenly we are asking, Why did Christ come so
early? Here, all along, we had been asking the opposite, Why did he come
so late? Now we are asking instead, If Old Time is going to end anyway, all
too soon, why did Christ have to come and end it even sooner -- ahead of
time? Why? Answer: to give us an option.
S is for
Sanctify ("make holy")
What would you do if your preacher directed, as I did a few weeks ago,
"Raise your hand if you are holy"? If you hesitate, as many of my hearers
did, the reason is probably a modesty (either appropriate or unnecessary)
concerning one's own behavior, namely, is it so God-pleasing?
